That Which Prowls in the Dark of Night
Disclaimer: The TMNT belong to Mirage and other people not me.
Chapter 3: Annie
"You have got to be kidding me," Casey said as he handed Raphael another soda. "How can Mikey predict the future?"
"We were never able to figure out that part," Raphael said as he lounged on Casey's floor. "He just did. Sometimes the dreams were more symbolic like that first one about the spider, but there were a few that were pretty blatant and obvious."
"So which was this?" Casey asked.
Raphael shook his head. "Don't know the answer to that one, Case. Donny used to be able to nail which of Mikey's dreams were going to come true all the time. He told us he'd get this feeling, like he could almost see what Mikey was describing in his head, and he'd get a prickly feeling on the inside of his shell. I got that feeling last night when I listened to him. That's why I stayed home. I couldn't shake the feeling that if I went out that night, I was going to run into something I couldn't handle on my own."
"But still something that was gonna eat you? Isn't that a little far fetched?" Casey tossed him another sandwich.
Raphael caught it easily without even looking. "Not when it comes to Mikey,' Raphael said. "Like I said sometimes the dreams meant something we didn't expect, but it came true anyway. I almost expected him to freak out again when we left this morning."
"So what are you going to do?" Casey said taking a sip of his soda.
Raphael sighed. "Depends on what Leo and Donny find out today. The one thing I do have to worry about is going off anywhere on my own. For years we thought Mikey's dreams had a two week deadline, but he predicted The Shredder going after Leo months ahead of time. So I have no idea if it's gonna happen tonight, or a year from now!"
"You wanna get back to the others," Casey said.
"How did you guess," Raphael asked. He knew he was being a kill joy today, but not knowing what was going on at home was getting him crazy.
"You four are like quads," Casey said. "When one of you is hurt the rest of you hurt too. I saw enough of that at my grandma's house in North Hampton."
Despite his worry Raphael smiled. "We're that obvious, huh?"
Casey smiled knowingly. "Pretty much. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself, but when Leo was healing up the bunch of you kept picking up the slack for him. The three of you got all serious, and stopped squabbling. You never even yelled at Mikey the whole time we were there."
"I didn't?" Raphael tried to remember one time that he snapped at Michelangelo in the country, and couldn't recall. "Man, I must be slipping."
"Nahhh," Casey assured him. "Leo came first, teasing came behind everything else."
"I guess," Raphael said. He really didn't want to think back to their first stay in North Hampton
Casey looked out the window. "It's gonna be nightfall soon. We'll head back as soon as it gets dark. "
"I was gonna stay until midnight, at least that was what I told Leo." Raphael said. He finished the soda and crushed the can between his hands.
"Right," Casey said with a grin, "and you'd be miserable until we went back anyway. I don't mind. Splinter let you free one night, and the world didn't come to a crashing halt. He'll let you out again."
"If you don't mind, Case." Raphael said feeling a bit guilty. "I just feel bad dumping on you like that."
"We can still hang out," Casey said, "We'll just do it at your place."
The other's are going to kill me. Raphael thought to himself. Him coming up here was supposed to curtail Casey's visits, and subsequent destruction of the lair.
As soon as it grew dark Casey and Raphael, both armed to the teeth, began to head over to the lair. Eager to check up on the others at home, but not eager to be confined below again, Raphael suggested they take the street route over the rooftops. For some reason, even though it was early evening, there seemed to be a lot of muggers and low life's around.
"Hey Case," Raphael asked as he tied up another set of Purple Dragons. "How long has it been like this?"
"Don't look at me, pal. it just started getting like this two nights ago." Casey said. "One week everything is normal then all of a sudden, pow! Everything starts crawling out from under their rocks. Funny too, the news picked up on it, and they said a lot of the crooks were first timers, who later didn't know why they did it."
"That's weird." Raphael muttered. The truth was it was more than just weird. It bothered Raphael. For no reason at all he thought of Michelangelo back home. Did his dream ever mention anything like this at all? Then a thought came to him. You can't go out there, Raph, it's waiting for you. "Why would a bunch of first time hoods start mugging people all at once?" Raphael asked.
"Hey I just beat them up! Casey answered back with a shrug. "I don't ask why they do what they do. I just make them wish they hadn't!"
Raphael would have preferred to think more about this, but suddenly they heard a woman scream, and they raced down the street to rescue her. When they got to the street they saw a small dark haired woman dressed in blue. She had a small black monkey with a prehensile tail on her shoulder who was hissing, and batting back at the four thugs surrounding her. The thugs were nothing special. Raphael and Casey had seen their kind on more than one occasion. They were trying to rob the girl, or worse.
"Let the girl go!" Raphael said. Behind him he could hear Casey pull out his hockey stick from his golf bag.
"It's one of those freaks!" One of the Purple Dragons said. "Lets get him!" Two of the Purple Dragons advanced viciously towards Raphael, but he drew his sai, and deflected the blows easily. Behind him Casey swung his hockey stick high over his head, and went after three others. Once they were down a sixth pulled out a gun. Raphael threw his sai and disarmed the guy, then with a flying dragon kick sent him to the cement. One by one the gang members came to their senses, and ran off into the night.
As Raphael watched The Purple Dragons run away, he and Casey turned their attention to the girl. She was dusting herself off. She had dark auburn hair and soft brown eyes. She wore blue jeans and a denim blouse with an odd shaped star pendant made of some black stone with a metallic luster around her neck.
Casey seemed to recognize the girl. "Annie?" Casey asked.
The monkey hissed at him as well, but she calmed it with a word and a caress. "Casey," she said with a smile on her face. "Lucky for me you showed up."
"You shouldn't be out alone in this neighborhood," Raphael said. Something funny was gong on, but Raphael wasn't sure what it was. Then as she turned to him he realized it. She wasn't freaking out.
"So you're a friend of Casey's," she said directly to Raphael. It didn't sound like a question. "Lucky for me I didn't have to go to far to find you."
"To find me?" Not only wasn't she surprised to see him, but she sounded like she was looking for him.
The girl made a gesture, and the monkey went scampering for a fire escape. The girl then moved forward. He didn't know why but suddenly Raphael felt threatened by this strange young girl.
"Annie? You was looking for us?" Casey asked.
"For him," Annie corrected Casey. "You're protected from the dekabor out there, but if you don't want your friend to end up the blue plate special you'll need my help."
She sounds almost like Mikey did yesterday. Raphael thought. "What do you mean?" Raphael said, resting his hands on his sai. "What's a dekabor?"
"More problems than you want to deal with." Annie said still striding forward. She reached out, and gently touched both of his shoulders. An electric charge seemed to flow through Raphael's body, and suddenly he was paralyzed.
What the shell? he asked. He couldn't move. He couldn't even speak. Casey instantly noticed, and savagely moved towards the girl. "Annie! What did you do to him?"
"I have to put protections on him," she said "If I don't the Dekabor will keep coming after him. Your friend is just the type of person he likes to use." She backed away from Raphael keeping her eye on Casey, who drew closer with his baseball bat in his hands.
"Annie, I don't want to hurt you, but whatever magic spell you just put on Raph I want you to take it off – ungh!"
Annie raised her hand, and a glowing sphere of energy appeared, and attacked Casey. It flung him against the wall where he landed stunned with a grunt. The girl waved her hands around Casey again muttering in some uncomprehensible language until he stopped struggling and lay still.
"It's for your own good Casey," she said evenly. "And your friend's." She turned her attention back to Raphael.
Raphael tried to move desperately, but it was like he had become a statue. He could see and hear perfectly well, but he couldn't even turn his head to check on Casey. When she came closer he could feel his panic rising.
"It's okay," she said. She reached out, gently touched his forehead, and traced a symbol there. A wave of calm flowed into him, and his muscles all relaxed. He wasn't exactly frozen anymore, but he wasn't able to move on his own either. The strangest thing was that all his emotions simply shut down, leaving him in a sleepy trance. He was still aware of everything, but he simply didn't care.
"There, that's better," the girl Casey called Annie, said. "Now be helpful and pick up Casey. I'm not letting him wake up again until I'm done."
Part of Raphael wanted to resist, he wanted to argue, but he couldn't. It was easier just to follow orders. He picked up Casey, hefted his friend over his shoulder, and followed the girl as she led the way to a shop five blocks from where they encountered her.
"Put him over there," she said as she entered the shop. She indicated an old leather roman style couch. "I'll figure out what to do with him later."
Raphael obeyed meekly still wondering why he was doing so. He didn't want to obey the girl, but he couldn't fight the strange spell she had placed on him. Casey said she was magic. I think he wasn't kidding.
Unable to move unless told to, Raphael scanned as much of the room as he could see. There was no question about it the place was weird. There was an area to one side concealed by a deep red and gold trimmed curtain. Nearby was a clothing rack with various different sorts of costumes. Underneath the rack was a globe, and the head of some kind of antelope. The monkey had followed them back to the shop, and it was sitting on a shelf and watching the proceedings. The odd thing was that at the moment it looked more like a cat than a monkey. It still had hands and the tail still looked prehensile, but the face and body were definitely more feline than it had been before.
Once Casey was put aside on the couch the girl turned and looked Raphael up and down. "And now," she said, "There's only one way I know of to put protections on a person, and I know if I gave you a choice you'd tell me where to go, so..." She trailed off in thought then moved over to an area of the room with a grey slate floor. She drew a pentagram on the floor with white chalk. "Stand there please," She said. Again Raphael simply obeyed her. Once he was inside of the diagram she placed a necklace on the floor between them on the chalk lines on the floor. It was a simple gold chain, with a little gold turtle as a pendant.
"Now for a blade," she said. She looked around the odd artifacts in the room, but she didn't seem to find what she was looking for. Finally her eye came to rest on Raphael and his sai. "I guess that will do," she said. She reached over and plucked his right sai off of his belt. Now he wanted to be angry. He wanted to grab his weapon back, but he couldn't work up the energy to be upset by it. He tried to, but she noticed and traced the symbol on his forehead again, calming him down. "Easy friend. I'll give it right back. She brought the sai downstairs. Still frozen by whatever magic she possessed, Raphael could hear her singing below. After about ten minutes she came up. A brilliant blue aura surrounded his sai.
"Okay that's better," she said, more to herself than to him. She reached down and picked up the pendant keeping it between herself and him. She took her finger and pricked it gently with the tip of the sai. Grasping the turtle pendant in her good hand she allowed a few drops of her blood to fall onto the pendant. Then she took his hand, and repeated the steps with his fingers. When she was done she rubbed his wounded finger, and whispered something under her breath. To Raphael's surprise the cut healed up instantly. Then she wiped the sai on her robes and placed it back in his belt. "There," she said. "Now everything's ready. She placed the pendant around his neck, and then began chanting in a language he didn't understand.
What is she doing? Raphael wondered. Suddenly the chalk drawing at his feet began to glow as did the slender golden chain around his neck. He could feel something being drawn around his body. It wasn't exactly restrictive, but it was enough that he could feel it. He looked down at his hands and saw bands of golden light encircle his wrists. A strange energy began to rush into him, as he felt part of himself flow out joining with that odd wave of energy.
Finally she finished. He still couldn't move, and he really didn't care too. He just watched her apathetically as she took the pendant from his neck and placed it around hers. Instantly he felt the power of the magic spell. She had control of him. Everything he was, everything he thought, everything he could do was now hers. Even under the calming spell fear began to well up in him.
"Don't be afraid," she said again. "I'm not going to make you do anything, Raphael. I'm just going to send you, and Casey on your way again. Pick him up and follow me."
Again Raphael found that all he could do was obey her. Under the spell of calm however, Raphael knew he was seething. Who was she that she could do this, and how was he going to get out of it? Was this the warning that Michelangelo had tried to give him?
She led him to the alley, and instructed Raphael to lay Casey gently on the ground. Once that task was done she looked at him directly and said, "I was afraid and ran away. Once I'm gone your free to do as you will, but you will not tell anyone what happened. Weather you remember or not is by your will, not mine, but you cannot tell anyone. I don't want your brothers banging down my door demanding I take my protections off of you. Do you understand?"
As much as it pained him inside to agree his mouth and voice worked against his will. "I understand," he said.
She sighed, and gave him a sad smile. If I ever get the dekabor to go back, I'll call you and take the spell off. I promise. Until then you'll have to live with it. Hopefully I'll see you soon." With that she ran back into the shop, but as Raphael reeled from the events his mind decided that he would be better off if he couldn't remember this."
Raphael blinked and shook his head. Why was he dizzy? He looked around. The Purple Dragons had ran off as usually. Unfortunately the girl they had been rescuing had run off too.
"Awww crud." Raphael said disgusted with the humans' attitude towards him and his brothers. He looked, behind him. Casey was unconscious on the ground.
"Casey!" Raphael called. He ran over to his friend and hefted him into a fireman carry. "Come on, pal. Time to get you home. Somehow he managed to get the taller heavier human conscious enough to wander down the alley. He was so occupied he didn't notice the monkey above him on the fire escape. It watched Raphael disappear into the shadows. Then wings appeared out of it's back and it flew back inside of a second floor window. The awning of the shop below the window said, "Miss Annie's Mysticisms and Magics"
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Coming Soon Chapter 4 Discovery:
"Don, check Casey out," Leonardo ordered. Donatello moved forward and checked Casey from head to toe.
"He's just a little banged up," Donatello announced. "He doesn't seem to have a head injury, but for some reason he can't wake up."
"It...it's those chords," Michelangelo said backing away from Casey. Leonardo turned to look at Michelangelo. He was shaking and there was something funny about the way he was staring down at their human friend. "The chords are holding him back. They wont let him wake up!"
Raphael, Donatello and Leonardo looked back down at Casey. They didn't see any chords at all. "Mikey, what are you talking about?" Donatello asked. "There aren't any chords."
"They're made of energy!" Michelangelo continued. "They're glowing and humming and stuff." Suddenly Michelangelo collapsed to his knees on the floor, and grabbed at both sides of his head. "My head! It feels like it's gonna explode!"
"Mikey!" Raphael and Donatello ran to Michelangelo's side but they were powerless to help him. He was in obvious pain, but there was no reason for it.
"Oh, no." Leonardo muttered He moved to join his brothers. He grabbed onto Michelangelo's shoulders and called to him. "Mikey! Mikey! Listen to me. Stop fighting it!"
Raphael and Donatello looked at Leonardo then glanced at each other. Both were confused. What did Leonardo mean? Whatever it was Michelangelo seemed to understand, because he shook his head and shouted, "No! I...I can't!"
"Mikey you have to!" Leonardo insisted. "You're hurting because your holding back on what your seeing. Let the vision go!"
"No," Michelangelo was still trying to fight whatever force held him tight. "This shouldn't be happening! I'm...I'm awake!"